<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Strangers Passing in the Night by Sounddrive</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22943296">Strangers Passing in the Night</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sounddrive/pseuds/Sounddrive'>Sounddrive</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Arcana (Visual Novel)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bar Room Brawl, Gen, Slice of Life, Walk Into A Bar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:53:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>980</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22943296</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sounddrive/pseuds/Sounddrive</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A work inspired by lazyvoyager's posts about their fan kid Adrian. The other OC featured in this work is one of my own fan kids, Junior.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Apprentice/Lucio (The Arcana)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Strangers Passing in the Night</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Originally Posted to tumblr on September 25th, 2019.</strong>
</p><p>Adrian was never one to go to bars on his own. That being said, as a bonding activity, his mentor and several other students, him included, went to go visit a bar.</p><p>Upon entering the doors of said establishment, Adrian ducked with Pepi-like reflexes as a bottle smashed right into the door frame.</p><p>There was a fight going on.</p><p>A lithe young man in red and black was fighting against two bigger assailants. He was greatly outmatched in strength, but speed seemed to be the target’s friend. He dodged the attempts to injure him, seeming to dance and weave around his brutish foes.</p><p>His expression however, betrayed how terrified he was.</p><p>As the young man ducked out of the way of the direction of one brute’s fist, the latter’s companion grabbed the one in red and black, starting to wale on him.</p><p>The rest of the bar was up in arms, chanting:</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“GET HIM!”<br/>
</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“KNOCK HIS HEAD OFF!”<br/>
</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“C’MON!! SHOW HIM WHAT YOU GOT!!!”</em>
  </b>
</p><p>Adrian’s mentor and his fellow classmates raced in to break up the fight, rescuing the victimized kid.</p><p>As his mentor worked to calm the pugnacious crowd, Adrian hobbled outside with the soon-to-be-patient, grimacing.</p><p>The poor kid couldn’t have been much younger than Adrian himself.</p><p>***</p><p>Inside, the patrons of the bar were barely being placated by several of Adrian’s classmates.</p><p>The medical student himself was with their mentor, watching as the blood was cleaned off of the boy’s face.</p><p>It didn’t take much probing to get his name: Junior Nguyen.</p><p>“All right, keep that on your face, Junior,” Adrian’s mentor murmurs, placing a chunk of ice wrapped in a handkerchief.</p><p>“Owwwwww-!” Junior groaned, nevertheless quietly thanking the doctor, placing the ice over his quickly bruising face.</p><p>“How’d you get into that mess?”</p><p>Now their patient was quiet again, refusing to acknowledge the question.</p><p>The bar roared violently behind the three of them, making the poor kid jump out of his skin.</p><p>“Adrian, stay with him--!” and with that, the medical professor too went into the fray.</p><p>Once the instructor returned to the bar, Adrian looked just as his patient started trying to get out of sight.</p><p>“Hey!” Adrian carefully placed a steadying hand on the other’s shoulder, successfully stopping him. “Where do you think you’re going? You’re hurt.”</p><p>“...lemme go,” Junior murmured, pleading.</p><p>“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Adrian replied firmly. He winced as a volley of glass bottles were smashed on the interior walls of the bar.</p><p>“Though... I think we should move away from... <em>that</em>.”</p><p>“Definitely...”</p><p>***</p><p>They found a little bench to sit on, a little ways away from the slow trickling of hurt patients out of the bar to Adrian’s mentor. They were happily chiding the injured now-patients, patching them up.</p><p>“...they insulted my parents.”</p><p>Adrian looked over to the young man in red and black. He didn’t really notice until then, but under the swelling of the bruise on the Junior’s face, Junior had startling silver-grey eyes.</p><p>“Your parents were with you?”</p><p>A shake of the head signaled <em>no</em>.</p><p>“...they were in town,” Junior explained. “Uh, my dad’s pretty infamous...”</p><p>“How so?” Adrian inquired.</p><p>Junior shrugs, frowning. “I dunno. Knowing my dad, he... weirdly doesn’t talk about it much. My mom on the other hand told me that he’s done a bunch of bad shit in the past, y’know? Thing is, people have long memories-”</p><p>And then, it was a torrent.</p><p>Adrian only caught so much because of how fast Junior spoke, but what he caught was: ‘not my fault’, ‘kept insulting-’, ‘I couldn’t let it stand-!’.</p><p>Once Junior was done, Adrian replied in summary, “So the two big guys, about four times your own weight combined, <em>insulted </em>your parents. In return, you thought it was a good idea to get into an altercation with them?”</p><p>“I didn’t throw the first punch.”</p><p>“I don’t care about that; I know family is really important and all, but you bit off more than you could.”</p><p>“Soooo you’re saying that if they were smaller-”</p><p>“No-!”</p><p>“-I could throw punches at them?”</p><p>Adrian face palms, and that pulls a laugh out of Junior.</p><p>“... My aunt Portia would like you,” Adrian remarked, making Junior raise his good eyebrow up in surprise.</p><p>“Oh, what’s your aunt like?”</p><p>“Well...”</p><p>***</p><p>Oddly enough, they made some good conversation. </p><p>It was going pretty well, talking about minor things and random factoids about each other. An answer for a question. Easy enough exchange.</p><p>“Medical student? That makes sense. I wish I knew what I wanted to do.”</p><p>“It’s okay you don’t know what you want to do yet; you’re still young.”</p><p>“Easy for you to say, mister-”</p><p>Junior stopped, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Adrian listened as well, trying to hear what got the other’s attention like that.</p><p>There were barks from dogs in the distance. Junior grimaced.</p><p>“Ah... that’s my cue.”</p><p><em>“Your</em> cue?”</p><p>Junior got up, a bit unsteady, but he managed to stay upright.</p><p>“Yeah, my dad’s dogs usually come for me if I don’t get back to where my parents are within an hour after sundown...”</p><p>Not too many moments after, a pair of dogs trotted around the corner-street. They spot Junior, and immediately bark, beckoning.</p><p>Adrian froze upon seeing them, unsure if he was seeing things from the old stories his father used to tell him.</p><p>A pair of two dogs, fur white as snow. One dog had a notched ear, and the other was missing an eye.</p><p>“Hey Mercedes, Melchior!” Junior greeted the dogs sheepishly. He handed the wrapped up, mostly melted ice chunk back to Adrian.</p><p>“Thanks for the help; maybe I’ll see you around?”</p><p>Adrian can barely move his head into a friendly enough nod.</p><p>With that, Junior disappeared down the street from whence the dogs came to retrieve him.</p><p>Mercedes and Melchior...</p><p>Junior was the son of <em>Lucio.</em></p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>